


Respite

by Dracothelizard



Category: Terminator (Movies)
Genre: All of the handwaving, Domestic, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Post-Movie, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracothelizard/pseuds/Dracothelizard
Summary: After a couple of months, Grace wakes up.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 20
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Respite

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Edo no Hana (Edonohana)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide and thanks for giving me an excuse to watch this movie again.

When Grace opens her eyes, she sees Dani frowning down at her. She blinks, and the frown turns into a wide grin. Dani looks away. “Sarah! Grace has woken up! Sarah!” She looks down at Grace again. “Wait, are you awake?” She waves her hand in front of Grace’s eyes.

Grace blinks again. “Sorry,” she mutters. “I didn’t think I’d get to wake up again.”

Dani nods. “Awake and talking. This is better than I expected. Sarah!” She calls out. “Grace is talking!”

Grace turns her head at the heavy footsteps and sees Sarah enter the doorway of the bedroom in their cabin? Hut? Where are they?

“That’s a shame,” Sarah mutters, but gives Grace a smile as well. “Welcome back.”

Grace manages to sit up, looking around to get her bearings. She’s on a bed. A soft, comfortable bed in a bedroom that’s otherwise sparsely decorated. The curtains are old and their colors faded, and through the window Grace can see trees and a bright blue sky. She hears a bird call outside and the wind rustle through the trees. “Welcome back where?” She turns to face Dani again, looking at her and at Sarah for a clue. 

“Canada,” Sarah tells her, leaning against the wooden wall behind her. “Middle of nowhere.”

“How?” Grace asks. She looks down at herself and can’t see any scars or wounds. “How did you bring me back? There’s no power source for me here.”

“We found a prototype, so we went and got it from this top-secret military facility,” Dani explains, as if it was nothing more than a grocery trip.

Grace stares at her, a million questions going through her head. Did Sarah and Dani break into a top-secret facility all by themselves? How did they even find out about the prototype? How did they install it inside of her? But there’s one question burning the brightest. “There isn’t supposed to be a prototype for years.” Wait. “How long has it been?”

“A couple of months.” Dani exchanges a look with Sarah. “Maybe we got the wrong one. If there’s one that’s more advanced…”

“It’s working, isn’t it?” Sarah replies. “Look, Skynet was pretty good at removing information on technology that posed a threat to its existence. Legion probably did the same.”

That made sense. “Okay, so I’m running on a prototype.” She flexed her fingers. “Everything seems in order.”

“It should be able to support your basic life functions,” Sarah says. “But only the basic ones.”

“We don’t know how it’ll affect your other abilities,” Dani admits. “Can you try?”

She tries to scan Dani and Sarah, but the HUD doesn’t pop up. “Punch me.” She needs to know if her artificial armor is still holding up. “Hard.”

Sarah has already stepped forward when Dani holds up a hand to stop her. “No one is punching anyone.”

“She asked. And she’s right. We have to know which abilities she still has,” Sarah tells her, folding her arms. “I told you, this kind of shit doesn’t just end. In one or two years they’ll send another one, and—”

“They haven’t sent one yet.” Dani’s tone is firm as she looks up at Sarah. “Grace has only woken up a few minutes ago. Maybe—maybe her systems are still booting up.”

Grace doesn’t entirely believe that. “Or there will be a more advanced prototype down the line.” Provided that Dani and Sarah stealing one hasn’t changed the future so development stops completely…

“Looking forward to it,” Sarah says. “So, what are you gonna do until then?”

Grace moves to put her bare feet on the floor. Dani and Sarah put her in flannel pajamas, and while comfortable, they aren’t practical if she wants to do any work around their hut-or-cabin. “Whatever needs doing. This place is ours?”

Sarah shrugs while Dani looks away. “No one’s asked us about rent and we’ve been here for over a month,” Dani eventually says.

“We’ll sort something out with the owner if they ever show up. This place was a mess when we got here,” Sarah adds.

“It looks nice.” At least, the bedroom she’s in and what she can see of the living area looks clean and well-kept.

Dani smiles. “Thanks.”

“My standards might be skewed, though,” Grace says, and Dani laughs. “What have you two been up to apart from breaking into military facilities?” And she definitely wants the full story from both Dani _and_ Sarah on that.

“Fixing this place up.” Sarah pats the wall. “Heading into the nearest town now and then for shopping trips and to keep up with the news. Figuring out how a vegetable garden works. Doing some hunting. Preparing.”

“We were thinking about getting some chickens,” Dani says, “because—”

“We were _not_ thinking about getting some chickens,” Sarah tells her, shaking her head. “They’ll be sitting ducks around here. Sitting chickens. I keep telling you, they won’t last the night, so whatever you’re thinking about fresh eggs, forget it.”

“We were thinking about making a chicken coop,” Dani says, ignoring Sarah. “The safest, strongest chicken coop the world has ever soon.”

Sarah snorts, but doesn’t argue.

Grace nods. “I can do that.” She’s never built one before, but she’s sure she can figure it out. “If I can protect you from Terminators, I can protect chickens from whatever’s out there,” Grace argues. She wants to be useful. It’s all she’s ever known.

Dani laughs at that, then looks worried again. “You sure? I mean, you’ve only just woken up. You should take it easy.”

Grace shakes her head, then gets up. She sways, reaching for the nearest wall until the dizziness passes. Dani, of course, is right by her side to hold her up. She’s also pushing at her to make her sit back down. “I’m fine.”

“You are not fine and you are sitting down.”

Grace does. “I’ll be fine soon.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Dani tells her. “We’re in no rush with those chickens. It’ll give us time to research coops, and you can help with the hunting or the gardening.”

“Please help with the gardening,” Sarah adds.

Grace gets up again, shooting Dani a warning look when she reaches out to support her. There’s no dizziness, but she’s still glad she’s got one hand against the wall. “I’d love to see it.”

Dani looks at her, then at the living room. “Are you—”

“Yes.” Grace lets go of the wall and forces herself to stay up. She’s fine, or close enough. “Show me what you’ve been doing.”

She carefully makes her way into the living room, and it’s as sparsely furnished as the bedroom she came from. There’s an old couch facing the fireplace, and a chair near a window to keep watch. The kitchen table is small, just enough to seat four, and has two mugs sitting on it. The countertop has a coffee machine, a toaster, and a drying rack with plates.

It’s the homiest place she’s set foot in in years. Decades.

And she can stay here.

She blinks back the tears as she rests her hands on the windowsill and looks out at the field next to the cabin. There are a few vegetable plants in there, but their leaves are drooping.

“Yeah,” Dani says. “Maybe we should figure out vegetable gardens before we get chickens.”

“Told you!” Sarah tells them from the kitchen. “But how about we sit down with some coffee first? I didn’t make this to go to waste.”

“How do you drink it?” Dani asks.

Grace is still staring at the attempt at a vegetable garden. “However is convenient.” When was the last time she had sat down to drink coffee with anyone? There’d been coffee, in the future and her past, but always drunk hurriedly. There was never any time to sit down and enjoy anything.

Not that the coffee had been much to enjoy.

“Black,” Sarah says decisively. “We’re nearly out of milk.”

Grace walks over to the kitchen table, Dani by her side every step of the way, and sits down. Sarah pours her coffee in a chipped mug and slides it over before pouring one for Dani.

She wraps her hands around it and raises to her mouth, blowing on it before taking a sip. The scent surprises her, but not as much as the taste does. She closes her eyes, relishing the rich, full flavor. “This is the best coffee I’ve ever had.”

“Your standards are skewed, though,” Dani says, but she’s enjoying the coffee too.

Grace smiles at her, and they enjoy the coffee in silence.

No plans. No missions. No discussing the latest report on Legion.

Just a peaceful silence, and the hope this gets to last a little longer.


End file.
